Professor McIntyre to hold forum on the Economic Crisis

Professor of Economics, Honors Program Director, SLRC faculty member, and author, Ric McIntyre will address a series of questions and discuss current initiatives in national and transnational labor organizing. Come to listen, debate, and strategize for greater participation of employees in the 21^st century workplace.

The Economic Crisis, Policy Response, and Opportunities for Organizing

• Are decades of regressive economic policies to blame for the current economic crisis?
  
• Does the policy response to the crisis adequately address the conditions that caused it?
  
• Can the Employee-Free Choice Act reverse the decades-long trend of wage stagnation in the U.S.?

Monday, December 7, 2009 from 4-6 PM
Lippitt Hall, Room 402

This event is sponsored by the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and Graduate Assistants United (GAU)

Labor Arbitration Conference- 2009

On October 30, 2009, the SLRC held its annual Labor Arbitration Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Newport, RI. This year's conference had the highest attendance in many years and the largest attendance since the conference was moved from Providence to Newport in 2007. There were 141 attendees including SLRC students Rachel (Elliott) Roderick, Kaitlin Hansen, Alexis Lyman, William Maccarone, Josh Oberle, Chandler Ruehrwein, and Sarah Soares. In addition to current students, a number of SLRC alums including Kathleen Augaitis (LRC '05), Chris Cobleigh (MS '04), Maria Dursi (MS '08), Brendan Fogarty (LRC '09) and Bill O'Gara, Esq. (MS '86) were in attendance. Bill was also a speaker on the panel titled; Under what circumstances should an employee who commits a terminable offense, not be terminated?

Mark Grossman assembled an excellent group of speakers who addressed a number of important issues in the field of arbitration. These topics included:

• Under what circumstances should an employee who commits a terminable offense, not be terminated?
  
• Health Insurance
  
• Employment arbitrations and their impact on collective bargaining
  
• The right to "confidential" information in sexual harassment or discrimination investigations
  
• Rhode Island law update
  
• Determining the appropriate remedy
  
• Interest arbitration: How the arbitrator decides
  
• Substantive law update: Title VII, ADEA, ADA and others
  
• How to draft and present petitions to vacate arbitration awards
  
• Effective arbitration presentations: The arbitrator's view
  
• Employee off-duty conduct and employer discipline
  

Once again Mark did an outstanding job of organizing the annual event. Next year's conference is scheduled for October 1, 2009 at the Marriott in Newport

Our next annual Labor and Employment Law Conference is scheduled for May 7, 2010 at URI's W. Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich, RI.

Click Here to view the 2009 Arbitration Conference brochure

Labor History Society Banquet

Professor Scott Molloy is the founder and President of the Rhode Island Labor History Society. The following appeared in the Providence Journal of August 18, 2009

  LABOR HISTORY SOCIETY TO HOLD BANQUET

Providence - The Rhode Island Labor History Society, formed to popularize the achievements and challenges faced by ordinary people in the workplace, will hold its 22nd annual awards banquet Thursday at the Roger Williams Park Casino.

A posthumous award will go to Kathleen O'Connor Rainone, former president of the Central Falls Teachers' Union and one of the most beloved figures in the American Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, according to URI Prof. Scott Molloy, an organizer of the event.

The society will also honor Rick Brooks, director of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals; Allen P. Durand, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 99; Maureen O'Connor Pontarelli, president of the Exeter-West Greenwich Teachers' Association; and James Riley, secretary-treasurer of Local 23 of the United Food & Commercial Workers.

With 450 members, the Rhode Island organization is the largest local labor history society in the nation, according to Molloy.

The society sponsors school trips to the Woonsocket Museum of Work and Culture, publishes books and pamphlets about local union history and encourages the study of labor history in secondary schools and colleges.

-staff report-

Professor Molloy inducted into the R.I. Heritage Hall of Fame

On May 2, 2009, Professor Scott Molloy was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet.  The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame was founded in March 1965 to honor the contributions of those whose efforts, in any line of endeavor, have added significantly to the heritage of the State of Rhode Island.
In addition to Scott, there were 8 other inductees.  All together they were quite an impressive group.  Of course, Scott made by far the most impassioned acceptance speech.

His nomination citied many of Scott's accomplishments including his many scholarly contributions including his books, Trolley Wars: Streetcar workers on the Line and Irish Titan, Irish Toilers: Joseph Banigan and Nineteenth-Century New England Labor; his donation of over 10,000 items of labor memorabilia to the Smithsonian Institute; his role as founding president of the R.I. Labor History Society in 1999; his award for URI Teacher of the Year in 1996; the Carnegie Foundation's Professor of the Year in 2005; and his role in building the Irish Famine Memorial. The final paragraph of his citation reads,

"Truly it can be said of Scott Molloy that is trip from bus driver and union official to labor history professor (from the front of the buss to the front of the class) has been a joyous and productive excursion for him and for all who value the rights of labor and those who cherish their Irish heritage."

This was a great opportunity for Scott to shine, as he was joined by many SLRC faculty members, alumni and current students.

This is quite a big honor- Congratulations Scott

Chick here for more information on the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame

Professor McIntyre speaks on the ILO & human rights

Professor McIntyre was a member of a panel honoring the 90^th anniversary of the founding of the International Labor Organization, co-sponsored by the International Labor and Working-Class History Journal and the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. The panel was titled, Global Labor Standards as Human Rights: The Past, Present, and Future of the International Labor Organization.

The panelist included:

• Jason Guthrie, University of Maryland: David Morse and the Effort to Remake the International Labor Organization in the Post-WWI Era
• Leah Vosko, York University: Managing the Margins: The ILO and the Challenges of Regulating Precarious Employment
  
• Richard McIntyre, University of Rhode Island: The ILO and the International Economic Order after Global Neo-Liberalism
  
• Sally P. Paxton, former Executive Director of Social Dialogue, ILO and Deputy Solicitor of Labor during the Clinton administration: ILO Labor Standards: Moving from the Theoretical to the Practical
  

The panel was held on September 24, 2009 at Rutgers University.